⚪️ Memory - Eye Witness Testimony & Misleading Information

Question 1

Who are eyewitnesses

Answer 1

Someone who has seen an event happen, often related to a crime

Question 2

How do leading questions affect EWT

Answer 2

Leading questions prompt or encourage a specific answer. The wording of the question can significantly impact eyewitness responses

Question 3

Loftus and Palmer experiment 1(method)

Answer 3

• 45 student participants were shown short video clips
• they were split into 5 groups, with 9 participants in each one
• all participants were asked about how fast the cars going when they ________ each other
• verbs were smashed, collided, bumped, hit or contacted (IV)
• DV was the estimate speed given

Question 4

Loftus and Palmer experiment 1 (results)

Answer 4

Smashed = 40.8 mph
Collided = 39.3 mph
Bumped = 38.1 mph
Hit = 34 mph
Contacted = 31.8

Question 5

Loftus and Palmer experiment 1 (conclusion)

Answer 5

Higher speed estimates when stronger verbs were used. Demonstrates how a single word can significantly alter memory recall

Question 6

When where both loftus and palmer experiments

Answer 6

1974

Question 7

Loftus and Palmer experiment 2 (method)

Answer 7

• 150 student participants were split into 3 groups
• all watched the same question and then each groups given a different question

1. How fast when the cars HIT each other
2. How fast when the cars SMASHED each other
3. No question

• returned a week later and asked did you see any broken glass?
  There was no glass in the video

Question 8

Loftus and Palmer experiment 2 (results)

Answer 8

SMASHED = yes, 16 no, 34
HIT = yes, 7 no, 43
Control. = yes, 6 no, 44

Question 9

Loftus and Palmer experiment 2 (conclusion)

Answer 9

Shows how leading questions can change interpretations /answers of the participants

Question 10

Contrasting experiment to Loftus and palmer

Answer 10

Yuille & Cutshall (1986)

Question 11

AIM of Yuille & Cutshall

Answer 11

To find out if eyewitness testimony for real events can be influenced by misleading information and how reliable EWT is

Question 12

Method of Yuille & Cutshall

Answer 12

-13 witnesses to robbery and murder in Canada were re-interviewed 5 months after the crime. A young man robbed a gun store, but the owner tried to prevent the man from leaving. This resulted in the shopkeeper being shot and injured and the young man being shot 6 times and killed.
- the reinterview included 2 misleading question

Question 13

Results of Yuille & Cutshall

Answer 13

The misleading questions had no effects on EWT. In fact they still had very accurate recall for the crime. Witness accounts of the incident proved to be very reliable and accurate.

Question 14

Conclusion of Yuille & Cutshall

Answer 14

Witnesses of real life incidents have remarkably accurate memories, even when the incident involved high levels of anxiety and weapons

Question 15

Real world applications of research into leading questions

Answer 15

Led to the development of the cognitive interview which avoids leading questions. It uses open ended questions like “what happens next?”